Two things about this bother the hell out of me. First, an improving economy should show a declining need for food assistance – not a continuing rise. And as our liberal brethren keep telling us: the current POTUS has made the economy “way better” – right?

Second: as I’ve previously written, the Obama administration quietly gutted Clinton-era legal limitations on the receipt of food stamps by able-bodied singles back in 2009. Those restrictions have never been restored. I have a REAL problem with paying for people’s groceries so they can to sit on their ass when there’s no reason whatsoever they can’t work and use what they earn to pay for their own.

Isn’t It Nice to See Their Eyes Finally Opening?

You probably noticed a jump in your taxes already this year. Specifically, your Social Security deduction went up by close to 50% (from 4.2% of taxable income to 6.2% of taxable income, an increase of 2% of your taxable income; [ 2 / 4.2 ] = 0.476, which is an increase in social security taxes of 47.6%).

Predictably, many liberals are outraged; some of the comments from DU quoted here are priceless. I guess they missed the “temporary reduction” part.

You can thank the current POTUS and his administration for that particular increase. After all, it was the Obama administration that engineered that temporary Social Security tax reduction during 2011 and 2012 in order to help the economy when it was clear that the 2009 stimulus boondoggle was a failure. But apparently the economy has now recovered, and that reduction is no longer necessary. (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.)

Hey, DUmmies: for once, the POTUS delivered on a promise. You’re getting exactly what you voted for.

Support Your Local Strip Club – with Taxpayer Dollars!

Well, that’s the case if you live in NY – and probably anywhere else that pays cash welfare benefits. But it seems that’s particularly easy these days in NY. Apparently NY gives both SNAP (formerly food stamps) and cash benefits via EBT card. And there aren’t any restrictions on where folks can get that cash. Rather, it’s ATM owners that make the call whether or not they’ll dispense cash from EBT cards that show a cash benefit available.

Bill O’Reilly has been saying it for a while “people vote on emotion, not issues”. Vote for the cool hip guy promising free stuff…ok, now on to American Idol, Dancing w/ The Stars, Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Psy Gangnam Style, NFL/college football etc…Sheeple don’t pay attention until it gets personal and their own paycheck gets docked. Unfortuntely, these people would still vote for BO if the election were today…well, he can spout off a few decent Al Green lyrics after all.

Unfortunately, some of us require food stamps, especially now. My wife and I both work min wage jobs and my hours have just been cut. As it stands, I might have enough money to pay my bills if I am really lucky. So, until I can find a better job (I’ve been looking for the past year), I need them.

What pisses me off is that my wife and I go shopping and get the bare necessities for nutrition. Maybe once in a blue moon, if there is money on the card at the end of the month, we splurge on a box of cake mix and a can of frosting. However, at the checkout line there are people with junk food who pay for it with an EBT card.

Chips, soda, sweets, and other non-nutritious items. The person paying is typically very over weight and, if they have kids, they are overweight as well.

At one point, a woman who was at least 300 lbs, racked up over $100 in nothing but junk and paid with it by EBT. My wife and I don’t even have $100 on our card during a month and we both work!

Believe me, I wish that I could just cut the card in half and make my money like an American should. However, I know that I am pretty much one of the only Americans using the card how it was intended to be used.

“We should make the poor uncomfortable, to kick them out of poverty.” –Benjamin Franklin

Flagwaver: there are indeed those in this nation that need nutrition assistance. Unfortunately, it sounds like you and your spouse fall into that category.

However, I’d guess somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of those receiving SNAP (formerly food stamps) are single able-bodied persons without dependents. Why? Because there were 3.9 million SNAP recipients in that category at the end of 2010, with approximately 2 million added that year alone. I’d guess at least two million or more additional recipients in that category have been added since. And there are somewhat less than 50 million SNAP recipients in the US.

Adding another two million total yields 5.9 / 50 = 11.8%, while adding 2 million more each year yields 7.9 / 50 = 15.8%. My guess is the actual number is somewhere between the two.

It’s giving that group free groceries paid for by the US taxpayer that pisses me off most. But the obvious fraud and abuse in the program is a close second.

And I ain’t buying that “only 1% is lost due to fraud” BS from the Department of Agriculture, either. IMO it’s way higher than that.

Interestingly enough I worked on a project were the objective was to find waste fraud and abuse in the SNAP, WIC,and Indian Commodity Programs. Not only was it shocking the amount of fraud but what was surprising is the cross fraud from state to state. Example mother claimed kids in Oklahoma for the Commodity program dad claimed them in Kansas for SNAP. We found case after case.

But the biggest surprise was that most of the fraud was done by immigrant store owners. In one case we found a methadone clinic where the owners from the market across the street were sending people over to tell the clients at the Clinic they would buy their Snap benefits.

I am all for the Nutrition Programs no should go hungry, but the USDA needs to do a better job of policing how the EBT are used, for example instead of allowing junk food give them cooking classes!

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About thisainthell

We are all military combat veterans and we write primarily from that perspective. Everyone who writes here has a Combat Infantry Badge, a Combat Medic Badge, a Combat Action Badge or a Combat Action Ribbon. We write about issues that matter to combat veterans..read more »